Lundström Schröder, Jacquline

The European Union's power to change the world : A qualitative study from a normative perspective (English)

Abstract [en]

The purpose with this essay was to examine how the European Union is working totransfer norms to states they signed an agreement with and provide support for inframe of the Barcelona process and the Tacis programme. The theory which weused was Ian Manners (PhD in Political Science) theory of "the EU as a uniquenormative power". The aim was to examine whether the EU - which Manners mean- has had a normative power to influence states to change. We used a qualitativeapproach through the use of a multiple case study and qualitative text and contentanalysis. The States which formed the basis of our study were within the BarcelonaProcess; Morocco and Tunisia as well as Azerbaijan and Armenia funded by theTacis programme. To this end, we were to answer the following questions: Can weidentify transfer of norms in the written bilateral agreements with these states, andare there any normative demands? Can we on the basis of our study answerwhether the EU holds a normative power to influence these countries to change, inaccordance with the normative theory? The agreements that we studied was thebilateral agreements that the EU signed with these States. In order to makeManners five norms (peace, freedom, democracy, rule of law and human rights),which he argues that EU is based on measurable; we used the Freedom Housefreedom index, and also by a historical study the development of the country. Theresults we found were the following; in all the studied bilateral agreements wefound clear - but to varying degrees - the transfer of norms. Although it differs indegree of regulatory requirements and also in the formulation of how the country iscommitted to abide by and comply with the normative requirements differaccording to the agreements, we can find the so-called "carrot and stickrelationship" that Manners believes that the EU use in the transfer of norms. Threeof the states that we investigated under the Freedom House freedom index did notdeveloped in a democratic way did, and the positive steps taken cannot be directlytraced back to the EU's efforts. It may also be due to other States or other forcesinfluence. We can’t, through our study confirm that Manners is right in these statesbut we can’t either rule out the possibility that the EU through the writtenagreements has changed the norms of the state in question, although progressseems to go very slowly.